What is Information Design?

Information Design is the study, formation, and classification of the underlying principles of all forms of communication and the many methods, processes, technologies and systems in which communication may appear. The underlying goal of all Information Design is to convey a message from one, or more, entities to another, or several, entities. Although there are many descriptions of Information Design "most would agree that it's more about function than form…" (Senechal, 1997). Successful Information Design effectively uses the "form" - the technology - to convey the "function" - the content - for many purposes: to educate, illustrate, inform, persuade, instruct, or to enable.

Information Design is a large umbrella encompassing many areas of study, such as: art, advertising, computer science, graphic design, information architecture, instructional design, interaction design, multimedia, psychology, software development, usability, user experience, user interface design, writing and editing, and web development. Each of these subset areas contributes valuable insights, processes, and technologies to the overall development of Information Design.